Original post: The Clayton Fire in Lake County continues to rampage forcing people and animals to flee. Some people are having to escape on foot. Flames are currently threatening the town of Lower Lake. At 2.55 p.m, the commander says that the fire is going to start burning the town of Lower Lake in 15 minutes if they don’t stop it.

Lower Lake received evacuation orders earlier today and Clearlake received evacuation orders about 2:30 p.m. in the area commonly known as the Chapman Tract east of State Hwy 53. “It is a complicated area to evac,” reports the incident commander over the scanner.

At 2:40 p.m. we heard emergency personnel state on the scanner, “We are starting to pick up people walking out of the fire. Can we get a medic unit?”

A commander on the incident is asking that no firefighters or aircraft be diverted from his area as there are life threatening conditions.

Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin declared “a local public emergency due to the disastrous conditions.”

Below in a video posted by Sheriff Tom Allman of Mendocino County, he and State Senator Mike McGuire were moved from an area as it becomes unsafe.

UPDATE 3:10 p.m.: “We are shutting down Hwy 53 and 29,” according to scanner traffic. All of Lower lake and the bottom half of Clearlake is being evacuated.

UPDATE 3:47 p.m.: Mom and daughter are swimming across Cache Creek. The fire is held to one side of the creek.

Oh no, not again! Looks like this one might fill in the gaps from the earlier fires.
The Rocky fire might have been old enough that it could be dangerous again.
Why does this happen so often going into heat waves.

Fire is often part of the natural cycle in a Mediterranean climate, especially one with normally good winter rainfall to grow the fuel for long, hot, dry summers. With the endlessly increasing population, more people move into fire-prone areas. Drought cycles and global warming may exacerbate the situation. Sorry for all those who are suffering.

Bringing me to tears, this could be any of our little towns. The fear from the fire chiefs comes through and it’s terrifying to think of people having to leave on foot.
Please let us in humboldt know how we can assist in any way.
Many blessings and prayers that a,miracle save this town and that all can get away from the flames, trauma barely gone from last year.

Stay safe Firefighters nothing worth your life .Been there .i’m hearing reports the downtown is in a major crisis. Thanks hypocrites your forest management never ceases to amaze me. That would be The so-called not-for-profit environmental groups that closed our forests with the north west forest plan.

Forest fires have long been a component of the Cali environment. Blaming environmentalists for every disaster is a cheap shot. So what is your solution? Clearcut every acre of federal land? C’mon, whadaya got? Population control would be a starter.

Is there any rep we can call to demand evacuation assistance for you all down there??? Absolutely ridiculous more evacuation help not available, I can’t imagine having to run/swim to safety. Isn’t this what natl guard is for?

Blessings to all involved,
let’s all picture it raining there, it may sound wooey but no harm done to envision it!

With the prolonged drought and the future unknown, we need to have crews in the winter and spring clearing debris in these high threat areas. Go into the forest and break up dead branches right there. If we help the forest build better soils they will be more tolerant in these high stress situations. A rich mulch forest bed holds more moisture. It would also help reduce the swiftness of fire spreading.

For a very long time these forests were managed by fire, now current managment techniques are allowing for overgrowth. Such a dense mixed forest added with drought equals a really bad time for a lot of people.

Agreed. Our management strategies have to change. Goats are fantastic at clearing brush and grass. We need to listen to the native wisdom of how they decided on the right times to burn.

And let’s all take the time to contact our reps to ask for the practice of poisoning and killing standing trees not considered valuable by timber companies to be made illegal.
Basically they become standing matchsticks.
Many firefighters in mendo tried along with other community members to get this practice halted and were denied.

I’ll never understand how people like yourself can remove the human element God gave us a brain for a reason try using it removing dead and dying trees from like the bark beetle is just plain common sense .

You know there’s no convincing the idiots of the world how wrong they are the bark beetle is killing millions of trees in the west it’s people like yourself to just make me sick .homicides are used to kill brush sometimes to promote a healthy growth of trees but you’ll never ever be able to understand that you’re too busy probably producing drugs to poison our youth . I could tell you where to go but I think I’ll keep it to myself .

If god gave you a brain then that’s fine with me. I would prefer my college degree over your 3rd grade run on sentence skills.

I will agree with you about the bark beetle. It was a big topic in my mountain geography class at an University. Do you know what that is? If we helped the forest soils then a healthier forest can resist fire and pine beetles.

Natives understood the benefits of fires without university degrees. I’m an old timer that learned from the old time ranchers that learned from Native Americans. The most ignorant we locals ever saw in 70’s years on the land are college educated nitwits full of bluster and stupid as a hell. Their professors sit in an office somewhere and speculate what’s good for the forest and brainwash the coddled masses that make it to their classes. There’s not room to tell how the Native Americans kept the forest clean with fire along with natural forces such as lightning strikes. You can’t duplicate what they did or the old time cattlemen did today in s big way because wood structures everywhere and the threat of lawsuits from idiot environmentalist. The most destructive force to ever hit our rivers and mountains are greedy environmental types who’s ignorance is astounding. Take your collective degrees and shove them.

Goats are also great as emergency rations for starving cougars. Best use yet (I’m biased and I know it, thanks). Dead snags were always a component of Cali forests and many forms of life depend on them.

Here’s one problem: Lake County advertises itself as having the “cleanest air in California.” Burn permits COST $25 and my daughter (who lives in Upper Lake) says the Air Quality Control Board declares so few “Burn Days” that it is really difficult to burn defensive lines in the spring with any effectiveness. So that’s something that MUST change. Safety MUST come before tourist dollars. Lake AQ needs a lawsuit! (The County AQ Boards are independent of the State.) af

I use a chipper myself, on the “flat” areas of my land. Otherwise making mulch piles makes sense unless the fire gets to them – in which case they become “hot spots” with flying embers. Dealing with large Mountain areas is only cleared by burning. af

I just drove past this fire on Hwy 20. Never seen so many fire crews on the road. I had to pull over repeatedly to let them all get by. So many cars trying to evacuate as well. The smoke completely blocked out the sun. Thoughts and prayers to everyone involved!

Is lake apt burning behide the gas station?? I’m from there but live in redding now!!please everyone pray pray pray for this fire to end and every body to be safe!! My Heart is breaking!! Thank you fire fighters!!! Oh God…

Probably a good idea for her to have horse trailer/food/dog/self ready to go. The Middletown vet has some links to good writeups about evacuating critters on their twitter feed.
Best and blessings, better to get out sooner than later

As of right now the fire is still burning north of twin lakes and moving north. The sheriffs are doing door to door evacuations and have been giving people plenty of warning when they should prepare to evacuate. My guess is twin lakes is safe for now and will remain safe if the fire stays moving in the direction it is.

If you can find out any info on Bonham Rd specifically, that would be appreciated. We have family that was evacuated earlier and hoping the home is safe. Doesn’t look good though sadly, but would appreciate any info.

Trying to get more info on Big Bear & Pebble Road neighborhood in Lower Lake…. Can’t seem to find anything…. the live feed from ABC 7 News earlier kept glazing over the area, but wouldn’t focus around there. It was hard to tell WHERE the neighborhood was from the quick panning of their camera. Any help?

I join hands with everyone here, in prayer, and pray in agreement that everyone is safe, including residents, firemen, animals, pets, etc. I pray that this fire will be contained soon as well. May God comfort you all in your time of need.

They are seeking monetary donations. The Social Service Director stated at the 8pm news conference that MONETARY donations are needed at that time. THey were inundated with inappropriate in-kind donations last year. MONEY! That’s what they need.

I know that hindsight is easy, but why isn’t there a 100 yard buffer zone around these areas that interface with wildland fire prone areas? I know it is not easy in areas where folks sprawl into the wilds (like I do) but it seems a buffer zone would be a proactive approach to wildfires here in the Northwest.

BTW, I have a huge zone around my place that fires can not jump. I went through the fires in 2008 and had 90%of our property line burned. We sheltered in place and had no problems.

I live on May Hollow (am out of town) but my husband is at home. Fire started right by storage units on 29 but blew opposite direction of Twin Lake, then blew back again yesterday and devoured Lower Lake town. Currently still moving to the north. Praying they get it under control today

Thank you kym for the updates!!this is Angela my whole family lives there,I’m trying to get ahold of my brother Tony Sanchez and his family they live on 22nd across from highway..is that burning?? I’m in redding now thinking about driving down!! Can I get through??? My Heart is so sad please God shower us with rain!!! Thank you so much Firefighters!!! I’m praying in the name of JESUS!!let’s ALL keep praying!!!

Bevens is 20 miles away and eagles nest is 10 miles get it together [edit–note from the editor: People are scared and some are neither map savvy nor computer savvy. Please don’t call them names. Ignore them if you get too frustrated. I’ll try to answer if I have time.]

Outstanding article. Thank you.
I am praying for all the people, and the wildlife who will not make it out or have their homes rebuilt.
More than a million thanks to every firefighter: please come home safe.

Not calling names some of us lost it all and people into and eagle nest do not have the prob we have worry about the good folks in ll that lost it all not the stuff in storage you don’t care about bs we lost it all me and my boy 2 houses and a business